


The Blessing Outtakes

by Artemisdesari



Series: The Blessing Verse [2]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Deleted Scenes, Magic Hobbits, Multi, magic dwarves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-14 04:06:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 11,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19265560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemisdesari/pseuds/Artemisdesari
Summary: Deleted scenes from The Blessing that either didn't fit with the flow of the story for one reason or another, or covered too much of the same ground as seen by other characters.





	1. Bluebell and Fili talk at Bag End

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I felt this chapter didn't fit with the original flow of the story and so I cut nearly 1000 words and replaced them. It probably could have worked either way.

Bluebell braces her hands on the side of the sink and takes a deep breath. The kettle will whistle soon to tell her that the water has boiled for her mother’s tea. Quite honestly, she could do with a cup of camomile herself, or maybe just a hit of those spirits that Frerin thinks he keeps so well hidden on the top shelf in the pantry. The enormity of the evening is beginning to sink in. Frerin’s family is here, they have found him. She doesn’t think they expected him to be here, not if the expressions on Fili and Kili’s faces was anything to go by. She can’t think of any other reason for them to have come, however, dwarves are mostly ignorant of the existence of hobbits and entirely unaware of the gift the smaller race possesses.

The whistling kettle startles her, and it takes only a moment to fill the small teapot she has already prepared and take it through to her mother. Belladonna is quietly looking into the fire and nods her thanks in that absent way Bluebell has come to associate with her mother attempting to gather her thoughts. Bluebell places a kiss on her mother’s cheek and hurries back into the kitchen. No doubt their unexpected guests will be expecting refreshments and it’s only proper to provide them anyway.

“Mistress Baggins?” A voice says behind her and she lets out a little shriek as she turns. Fili grins at her from beside the kitchen table.

“Master Fili,” she gasps, then scowls.

“Peace,” he holds his hands up. “I came to apologise, for myself and for my brother.” He rubs at his ear, which is quite red now that she looks closely. “We had no business treating you as we did in your own home.”

She blinks, momentarily taken back. She certainly didn’t expect an apology and her own behaviour was no better. Guests, even unwanted ones, should never be treated like errant faunts or scolded as though they are little more than children. Which is when it occurs to her, given all of the stories that Frerin has told her, that she just dragged the heir to the throne of Erebor (not that they have a mountain at the moment) through her smial by his _ear_. She feels herself blush.

“Thank you,” she says simply, “but I should also apologise. My reaction was-”

“Justified,” he interrupts. “Our mother would have done worse had she seen us.”

“Lady Dis?” Bluebell asks.

“You’ve heard of her?” Fili seems surprised but his eyes flicker to the corridor where Frerin is still talking to their other guests.

“Frerin speaks of you both, and his brother and sister, with great fondness.” She reaches for the tankards on the top shelf and huffs when she realises that she will either need to get the steps or Frerin.

“Let me help,” Fili offers, reaching over shoulder. “How many do you want?”

“How ever many we’ll need for the number of you coming,” she replies. “How many is that, anyway?” He pauses, still behind her and close enough that she can feel the brush of his coat when she breathes.

“You don’t know?” She glances back to see that he is staring at her. “We believed you were expecting us.”

“Not at all!” She exclaims and sees his face fall. “But surely only one or two more of you are coming?” If they are here for Frerin, as they must surely be, the only ones left that need to come are his siblings.

“Thirteen of us, all together,” is his response. She turns and stares at him in horror.

“And I suppose you’re all going to want food and ale?” She asks in a weak voice, remembering the first arrival’s calls for just that.

“We were told there would be plenty of both,” he shrugs. “We had no reason to doubt it.”

“I’ll bet you bloody didn’t,” she mutters thinking on her mother’s words earlier and her belief that Gandalf is somehow involved in all of this. Bluebell rather suspects that her mother might have been entirely correct in that assumption.

“You really had no idea we were coming?” Fili asks, as though to confirm her earlier assertion. She meets his eyes and raises her eyebrow before muttering a few choice phrases that would horrify her parents.

“If we’re expected to feed you all I’m going to need help,” she sighs.

“Whatever you need,” he offers, and she thinks she sees a moment of guilt pass over his face. She thinks for a moment, having a dwarf or two at her disposal will probably prove useful and no doubt the others will be more inclined to listen to one of their own.

“Alright,” she breathes. She can do this. It has been a long time since they have entertained in Bag End, and she was still a child then, but she knows what to do. She just has to make it all work. “I’ll show you where to find the ale, you’ll find it easier to move the casks than I will and-” The doorbell rings, announcing another arrival. “I’ll show you once I’ve answered that,” she concludes before shouting through to her mother that she will handle it.

Fili follows her into the hall. The absence of his brother is explained by a quick yell of “careful lad” from the direction of the dining room and she pulls a face. Yavanna only knows what kind of state the place will be in come morning, given the scrape of moving furniture. She’s tempted to tell Fili to go and tell them to be careful of the floors, not sure she wants him following her around, but loath to send him away. It helps that he’s easy on the eyes and his voice is pleasant to listen to, she supposes, and she’s glad she didn’t send him away when he pulls her out of the path of an avalanche of dwarves when she opens the door.

She ignores the warmth and strength of him to, instead, give the sniggering Grey Wizard a piece of her mind.


	2. Nori thinks about his life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nori has an introspective moment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ship Nori and Dwalin, HARD. But I'm also aware that they probably aren't all that suited to one another. There was no where I could put this. I didn't have another Nori focused chapter and I wanted Nori and Frerin to interact outside of the quest at least once in the past. Nori roams (in my head) so it wasn't unlikely that he would have made it to Bree while Frerin was there at one point. But it also explains a little bit about his interaction with Dori on their way into Rivendell.

Nori knows what he is. Cast in a charitable light he is a dwarf who is very good at getting into places he has no business being and acquiring things of value that, strictly speaking, don’t actually belong to him. Put bluntly, he’s a thief. He didn’t become a thief because it pays particularly well. True, he’s one of the more talented ones, which is why he still has all of his limbs, and, if he decided to, he could live a very comfortable life in a settlement outside of Ered Luin. His brothers are in the Blue Mountains, however, and no matter how difficult his relationship with Dori is, he won’t abandon his family.

Nori has nimble fingers and an eye for gems. He probably should have ended up as a jeweller or a weaver, perhaps even making and repairing instruments. His mother had been sick, however, when the time came, Dori was apprenticed to a tailor of dubious skill and an inflated sense of his own worth, and Ori had still been too young to be left, especially as he was a sickly pebble in even the warm seasons. Nori had been left watching the dwarfling and the money dwindled more and more as their mother became too sick to go out and work.

Nori began stealing.

It started small, a loaf of bread here and an apple there. Anything to stop Ori from wailing his hunger. Then, one day, he lifted the purse of the wrong dwarf and quickly found himself sucked into the world of thieves and cutthroats and he _thrived_. He’d get caught sometimes, that was inevitable, but he was good enough to always find his way out before it became a problem. He was one of the best.

So, Nori knows what he is. He’s a thief, pure and simple. Even if they take Erebor back, even if he becomes wealthy beyond his wildest dreams and gets that pardon Thorin promised into the bargain (because image is everything and the King can’t be seen _not_ to reward a member of his Company, nor can he afford to have that same member arrested for past crimes), Nori will still always be a thief. He will still always see too much, hear too much, and know too much to be anything other than a thief. It comes to him as naturally as breathing these days.

And _that_ is what makes the identity of his One so problematic. Naturally, his One would be Dwalin. That’s apparently just the way that his luck _goes_. Mahal must be laughing himself sick over it. Nori the thief and Dwalin the King’s Guard. If ever there was a pair of dwarves _less_ suited for one another it would be them. Yet here they are. Dwalin has to be as aware of it as Nori is, if the vehemence with which he’s arguing with Thorin about Nori’s uses us anything to go by. Dwalin has always taken more personal offence to Nori’s career and existence than any of the rest of the guard. Still, Dwalin can’t be completely against him, he knows as well as Thorin does that valuable _items_ aren’t the only things that Nori has been able to get his hands on over the years. It’s amazing the kind of information people will write down and leave lying around, even these days. It has helped Thorin in the past and hearing Dwalin admit that goes a little way towards smoothing the hurt caused by hearing the larger dwarf call him an “honourless piece of gutter filth.”


	3. The Trolls: Fili's pov

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fili's POV of the lead up to the trolls incident

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually started writing the trolls incident from Fili's POV, but then realised that I would need to do Bluebell's and probably Thorin's too, or at least Thorin's for the aftermath and it became a case of covering too much of the same ground. Fili's POV was sacrificed, he also started me off covering a few things that I wasn't quite ready to include which made the decision a bit easier. The only part I wish I had been able to keep is the first part with Kili.

“This is boring,” Kili complains for the third time in as many minutes. Fili eyes his brother while he smokes his pipe but doesn’t comment. “We’re the only ones out here, who’s going to bother with our ponies?”

“Do _you_ want to tell Thorin that?” Fili asks mildly.

“With the mood _he’s_ in?” Kili snorts. “I’d sooner be a warg’s chew toy, it would be quicker and probably less painful.”

Fili leans more against his tree and tilts his head back to look up at the sky. The stars are just becoming visible in the gaps between the leaves of the canopy above them. The sight of it makes something deep within him shudder. Fili is a child of the stone, in many more ways than Kili is, having so much _nothing_ above him has never felt quite right even though he doesn’t really know any different.

“You can’t tell me you’re not bored,” Kili says.

“I’m busy working out if it’s possible to hack you into a dozen pieces and get away with it,” Fili shrugs.

“You wouldn’t do that to me,” Kili smiles. “You’d miss me.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” he grouses in response. Kili falls silent for a blissful minute.

“Fee?”

“Mahal’s _sake_ , Kili, _what_?”

 _This_ is why Thorin never puts them on watch together. They either plot trouble or Kili drives him insane.

“Do you think you’ll forgive Frerin any time soon?”

What?

“Why do I need to forgive him?” Fili asks, already suspecting Kili’s answer. His brother can be like a dog with a bone.

“For leaving,” Kili elaborates, much as Fili had suspected he would. He huffs.

“Does he need my forgiveness?” Fili deflects.

“Well, you’ve forgiven Bluebell,” Kili replies. His brother is talking shit, of course, Fili never blamed Bluebell, even when she was just a nameless correspondent. “I just though it would make things easier if you-”

“What?” Fili interrupts. “If I told him that I finally understand why he abandoned us? That it doesn’t matter that we weren’t important enough to confide in? This never had anything to do with Bluebell, and you know it, she just asked for help. I don’t believe for a second she told him not to stay in contact.”

“But, Fili,” Kili begins.

“Let it _go_ ,” he snaps, turning away from his brother to run his eyes over the ponies. “Just-” he pauses. “Kee, count the ponies.”

There’s definitely two missing, although he finds himself hoping that Kili’s count will turn up the pair that he can’t see. Kili’s eyes are sharper after all. The loss of the ponies doesn’t help his mood, and it won’t help Thorin’s either. _This_ is why Thorin doesn’t trust them on watch together usually and to make it worse, Thorin will blame Fili entirely for getting distracted. He won’t say a word to Kili about it, he never does, but Fili will feel the full weight of his uncle’s displeasure.

Which makes Bluebell’s arrival with dinner both timely and inconvenient. He’s tempted to tell her to just go back to camp when she notices that there is something wrong but dismissing her so coldly because of his own mistake seems harsh, too much like something that Thorin would do, and she’s willing enough to help them work out what happened. Even if she _is_ exasperated with them. Mahal, he needs to stop letting Kili get to him so easily.

Once they’ve found the trail, of course, she declares that they should tell Thorin and he protests that quickly, they can surely handle this themselves and there’s no reason to make his uncle’s mood worse. Which is why he isn’t sure if he’s relieved or frustrated that Belladonna and Frerin choose that moment to show up, although he knows exactly how he feels when they discover that they’re dealing with three trolls and Frerin immediately starts issuing orders.

“Fili, Kili, go back and tell Thorin what’s happening,” Frerin orders. Kili shakes his head when Fili begins to object. Frerin has been gone for so long, how can he presume to simply take charge like that? Except Kili is right, now isn’t the time, and his stomach has reminded him that lunch was a long time ago. He takes his stew as he passes Bluebell, though he finds he can’t meet her eyes. He doesn’t want her to see just how much he resents his uncle taking over like this. Instead he settles for slurping down his, now cold, dinner, as they trot back to camp.

“You know, if Frerin hadn’t turned up we could have gotten the ponies back easily enough,” Kili comments, “Bluebell would have helped.”

Fili doubts that. He’s learnt that Bluebell can be quite stubborn when she thinks she’s right.

“You two are supposed to be watching the ponies,” Thorin says when they rush back into camp. “You had better not have convinced the hobbit girl to take over so that you can shirk your duties.” Fili stamps on his brother’s foot before Kili can get side tracked.

“There’s been an unfortunate development,” Fili tells Thorin quickly, “four of the ponies have been taken by trolls. We tracked them back to their camp, there’s three of them, and Frerin sent us to tell you what had happened while he keeps watch with the hobbits.”

“You mean to tell me you _allowed_ a troll to get by you and steal four of the ponies?” Thorin demands and Fili flinches. Yes, the troll got by them unnoticed, but does Thorin _have_ to focus on that _now_?

“Now, Thorin,” Dwalin intercedes. “I’ll grant the lads are very good, but even they wouldn’t be able to handle a fully-grown mountain troll between the two of them. Never mind three.”

It isn’t often that Dwalin will take a side _against_ Thorin. Usually he keeps his mouth shut and Fili is grateful that he’s chosen to speak up this time.

“Did my brother speak of a plan?” Thorin asks through clenched teeth.

“No,” Kili answers, though Fili suspects that he’s trying to divert Thorin’s attention. “He just told us to get you.”

Thorin nods and begins to bark orders to the Company. Then he flicks a quick order to lead the way at the brothers. They obey, walking in downcast silence back past the remaining ponies and towards the troll camp, once again following the trail of destruction. They are barely past the remaining ponies when Fili’s Stone Sense, usually so tightly controlled, flares to life briefly and a tingle spreads through his limbs. He glances at Kili in time to see indigo fire flare over his brother’s body and settle in his eyes. A quick look confirms that the same has happened with the rest and there is a great deal of uncomfortable muttering and suspicious gestures. Fili recognises the colour of it, though, as Kili must and they continue at a faster pace. There is only one hobbit waiting for them, when they reach the area that they had left Frerin and the ladies, and her eyes shine brilliantly as she gestures for silence against her rapidly moving lips.

“What foul sorcery is this?” Thorin snarls as he marches past Fili and Kili to grab her. Bluebell shakes her head and refuses to answer or _can’t_ if her frantic whispering is anything to go by.

She’s obviously terrified, Fili thinks, though whether of Thorin stopping her from doing whatever it is she’s trying to achieve or simply of _Thorin,_ Fili doesn’t know. The fact that she isn’t stopping tells him it has as much to do with her mother and Frerin as it does with the Company. Thorin’s grip is tight, however, tighter than it should be against one of a race not their own. Fili pulls Bluebell out of his uncle’s grip, not surprised to find that she’s nearly vibrating under his hands and holds her against his chest.

“Thorin, stop!” He snaps as he put his arms around her. She shudders and her words falter momentarily.

“It’s a hobbit thing,” Kili cuts in and Fili isn’t sure whether he should thank his brother or hit him. “Like Fili’s Stone Sense.” Kili adds and hitting him becomes the more prominent impulse. The secrets were always going to come out but this is hardly the time to announce them.

It makes Frerin’s return all the more timely and he holds Bluebell tighter when she sways after her chant stops. A glance down shows that she is obviously exhausted by her efforts, no matter what they were in aid of. She’s light, he realises, and she fits against him perfectly, he could hold her for as long as she wanted or needed and be happy for it. It’s a startling realisation and not entirely welcome given the nature of their quest. It mixes with the need to protect her that arises as he sees the distrustful stares of the others and makes the stone deep below him sing as it had in the Shire and in a way that he has only ever heard his mother describe. It makes him protest when Belladonna reaches to take her daughter into _her_ protection, as it should be, though it is gratifying to hear her own protests mix with his.

That urge to protect, however, makes him watchful when they retrieve the ponies. It makes him see her discomfort in the scrutiny of the others and he places himself as near as he is able. He almost expects Frerin to drive him away with the same dark scowls that he has used on the rest but he merely nods as Kili follows to help block Bluebell from accusatory stares and poorly muted whispers. That makes him more angry than anything else, that his own people can be so accepting of the oddities of the Stone Sense (although there are aspects of it they refuse to accept as possible even though Fili is slowly discovering many of the old stories may be true), but they then refuse to allow that the hobbit magic might be every be as strange as their own.

It makes Bluebell’s amazed acceptance of his own gift, when he has occasion to use it, all the more incredible.


	4. Elrond and Belladonna

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elrond and Belladonna talk while walking around Rivendell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It just didn't fit. It made the whole thing flow wrong and I just couldn't get a good grasp on Elrond. So I cut it out. But the conversation was fun enough that I wanted to share it, and it does provide a wonderful thought that I might expand on another time

It is hard to believe, the following morning, that he is playing host to fourteen dwarves and two hobbits. In comparison to their meal the previous day breakfast is perfectly civilised. With advance warning, and their experience of Frerin’s tastes, the kitchens have been able to provide a breakfast with enough meat to satisfy even a dwarven palette. It may not be to elven tastes, they prefer lighter fare, but there is no repeat of the previous evening’s antics. If anything, there is a subdued air to the party, whether it is disappointment that they will have to wait several more days until Elrond can provide the answers they seek or for some other reason he cannot say.

In truth, he is just glad for the peace, he knows that it cannot last long even though the two usually responsible for shattering it aren’t, currently, in residence. Things would probably be a little bit easier if they were, Elladan and Elrohir have a habit of making strange friends. The good behaviour continues for so long, in fact, that Elrond has a moment of hope that Frerin has, somehow, managed to exert some influence over the party. It’s a foolish hope, Frerin may not actively dislike _all_ elves anymore but he is still a dwarf and that truth is only _more_ apparent when he is among his own kind.

Ultimately, it’s Lindir who bears the brunt of it all. Lindir who has to organise for replacement furniture. Lindir who has to organise extra wine and Lindir who tries to convince the dwarves to use one of the rings for weapons practice instead of one of Arwen’s gardens.

“I suppose it is too much to hope that either of you could do anything?” Elrond asks Belladonna. He and Lindir had come across the two hobbits on one of the garden paths as Lindir had been listing the various problems that have arisen.

“I’m sorry, I wish I could,” Belladonna shrugs. “I had trouble enough convincing Frerin to behave himself.”

“Don’t look at me,” Bluebell says to her mother, “I tried at dinner and all I got for it was bruised toes.”

“One would hope that Thorin would encourage his kin to make a better showing,” Elrond grumbles, he’s not prone to it but even he has his limits and fourteen dwarves is very rapidly pushing him towards them.

“One rather suspects that Thorin is the one encouraging all this,” Belladonna replies. “I’ll talk to Frerin,” she says as they come around the corner and hear gleeful shouting, “see if he can convince Thorin that better behaviour might make things run more smoothly. Oh, my!”

The final words prompt Elrond to turn his attention away from her and onto the source of the noise. He had assumed that the dwarves were simply wrestling around the fountain and they are. Except they’re naked and _in_ the fountain. If it were not beneath his rather considerable dignity Elrond would go and find a wall to bang his head against. Instead he settles for turning around and rubbing at his forehead. His sons would be easier to deal with when they’re in the mood for mischief.

“ _Any_ help,” he reiterates as they all move back the way they came at a rather more rapid pace than they had approached at.

“I’ll do what I can,” Belladonna promises him, with a single glance back over her shoulder.

Her daughter is already much further ahead of them, a blush still faintly visible on her cheeks. Unlike her mother she is obviously less accustomed to the antics of dwarves. Elrond would like to say that this kind of thing has never happened in Imladris but his sons have had centuries to perfect causing all manner of mischief and he very much doubts they haven’t been caught bathing in the fountains a time or two.

“At least my sons have no part in this,” he sighs.

“Small mercies,” Belladonna agrees. “If Elladan and Elrohir were here they’d probably have run past us with the Company’s clothes by now. Imagine, fourteen naked dwarves chasing your boys all over Imladris.”

“I am attempting very hard _not_ to.” She smiles up at him unrepentantly.

“But it’s such an utterly enthralling mental image,” she laughs, “and I’ll leave it with you.” She dances away, leading her daughter with her and Elrond sighs. The summer full moon can’t come quickly enough.


	5. Thorin and Frerin argue in Rivendell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The argument from Frerin's POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While we hear the argument from Bifur's side, I had originally written it from Frerin's point of view. Ultimately, I felt like I was going over the same thoughts from Frerin's side as I had earlier and would be canvassing later as well, so I cut it and let Bifur hear it instead.

They have a way in, Frerin thinks as he looks up at the full moon which had just revealed the secret to entering Erebor. He finds himself wishing that they didn’t. He hasn’t put it in words, has tried very hard not to dwell on the thought in fact, but he had hoped that Elrond wouldn’t be able to help them or that the moon required to read the runes would be months or years away. Anything, in fact, that might dissuade Thorin from continuing and keep Bluebell safely away from Smaug. Sadly, it isn’t to be and Frerin saw the moment Elrond realised that it was to be Bluebell, _not_ Belladonna, who would be asked to sneak by the dragon. He wouldn’t even have been at the reading at all, except Thorin has barely let Frerin out of his right (and if not Thorin, Fili, Kili or Dwalin are always nearby). It has almost been as though Thorin is worried that as soon as they have settled in Rivendell Frerin will enlist the aid of the elves so that he can disappear again and take both of the hobbits with him. He can’t say that he isn’t tempted. Elladan and Elrohir would cheerfully help if he asked it of them. He hates the thought of Bluebell marching towards Smaug, hates the thought that his daughter might be killed in the pursuit of a home for _his_ people. He has taken her into his heart, adopted her as his daughter, but she’s under no obligation to any dwarf. Not even Thorin.

He begins to make his way to the garden near the guest house they have been staying in. for the most part the others avoid it, preferring the training grounds of the paved areas around the fountains. Hopefully he’ll be able to find a little peace in this place so that he can gather his thoughts before his brother catches up to him.

“You left in a hurry,” Thorin comments.

“I needed to take a moment alone, before we depart and walk towards our inevitable deaths,” he mutters.

“We aren’t going towards our end, Frerin,” Thorin snorts. “If I believed that I would never have allowed our sister’s sons to join me.”

“You let them join you because they were all you _had_!” Frerin cries. “Thirteen! You intended to face Smaug with only _thirteen_! You’ll forgive me for not being overly thrilled with the prospect.”

“Had you remained in Ered Luin you would have had the chance to object,” Thorin hisses, “you would have understood _why_ this is _necessary_. But you _vanished_. You turned your back on us.”

“Yes! I left,” he shouts. If Thorin wants to discuss this here after so long avoiding it Frerin won’t stop him. It has been weeks in the making, ever since Thorin walked into Bag End. “What did you expect me to do?”

“You could have _told_ me!” Thorin snaps and Frerin scoffs. “Do you have any idea what it did to us? What it did to Dis? Or the boys? Fili _idolised_ you!”

Shame hits him hard at that. It has been there, of course, in the back of his mind whenever Fili glares or withdraws at his approach. Kili does it too, although not as readily. The younger seems eager to set the past aside and move forwards, but Kili was ever the sort to forgive and forget. Fili has become, in many ways, much like Thorin.

“I know,” he acknowledges. “I _know_. I didn’t know what I was going to find, and you would have tried to talk me out of it. You know you would,” he continues when Thorin looks like he might object,” because the only way I would have come back was if I got there to find Belladonna had passed and Bluebell agreed to come with me. The situation was too delicate.” It doesn’t even go half way towards describing what he found when he got there, but there is no way for Thorin to know that and it isn’t his secret to tell.

“’ _Too delicate_ ’? She was a grieving widow!”

“There was far more to it than that! The Belladonna you know now is _not_ the one I found in that smial.” Images of Belladonna staring unseeing and the freshness of the scar on her cheek fill his mind for a moment, her shorn hair and skeletal figure. “What happened the day her husband died broke her mind.” Much like he had been told Thrain’s mind had apparently snapped when Thror was killed. “It was _years_ before she would so much as say my name or her daughter’s. How do you think she would have reacted if you had appeared? Or Dis? She’s had _years_ to recover and Dwalin’s arrival left her _terrified_!” In the early years Frerin had genuinely feared that she might try to rip the life from any dwarf she thought might try and take him away. He had come close to fearing it might happen on the night the Company turned up but for Bluebell’s presence and his assurances that they hadn’t really come for him at all.

“You abandoned us!” Thorin bellows, his pain obvious to anyone who might walk by. “For a woman who turned her back on you and married another!”

The injustice of that accusation hits Frerin hard. He remembers Belladonna’s heart break. He remembers having to tell her that all of the dreams they had spoken of and all of the hopes they had both nurtured had been for nothing. He remembers being the one to take her heart and crush it with only a few short words. There are still nights when he wakes from nightmares and they are not battle dreams as one might expect. They are dreams of that day in Bree when he told her the truth of his circumstances. Dreams that she never forgave him, never wrote to him, never allowed him back into her life and he wakes filled with crushing despair until he sees her resting peacefully next to him.

 “ _None_ of that was her fault!” Frerin cries. “ _None_ of it. Until you cornered me, I had never spoken of Ghruna or my betrothal. Bella and I were in love and the longer I left it when I realised that she _was_ my One, the harder it became to tell her. _I_ betrayed her,” Thorin makes a disbelieving noise, pulling a face that clearly shows how little he believes that. “I _did_ and she turned to Bungo Baggins because he offered her _everything_ my circumstances had ripped away from her.” The fact that, ultimately, Bungo had tried to take all of that from Bella as well has him striding towards his brother and grabbing Thorin’s coat in his fists. “All the happiness that you and I, and Thrain and Thror, had taken away from her. I couldn’t risk it happening again.” He shoves Thorin back. “I got a second chance and you expect me to believe that you would have let me take it?” He’s momentarily caught off guard by Thorin’s fist, it has been a long time since anyone punched him at all, let alone in the face. He puts his hand to his nose and feels warm blood trickle from it.

“It was unforgivable,” he admits as he continues, and he regrets it regardless of whether or not he would change it, “both after Azanulbizar and forty years ago. I expect that Dis will beat me bloody herself the next time I see her, and I _know_ I’ve lost Fili’s respect. Unless things have changed more than I thought, I’ve lost Kili’s too as a result. I don’t expect them to forgive me,” although that would be nice, especially if things between Fili and Bluebell go the way he thinks they will, “I don’t expect it of any of you, but I’m not going to apologise for following my _heart_!” If they had just let him do that in the first place it would have saved them a great deal of heartache.

“And we just have to accept it?” Thorin demands and Frerin finds himself wishing his brother would just let the subject go.

“It’s done!” He shouts in exasperation. “If I had my time over, I would probably do it the same way.” A blatant lie, there are definitely aspects of the last forty years he would change, but it isn’t worth getting into because he _can’t_ change it. “Accept it or not, Thorin, that’s your choice. If not for a meddling wizard I would have stayed in the Shire for the rest of my life and been happy. You would have spent yours believing me dead or as crazy as Thror. We can’t change it so what’s the point in arguing about it?

“We have the information we needed and have the others to gather so that we can leave. Let us focus on that instead of the past.” The argument needs to end. Elrond hasn’t outright said it, although Gandalf has been clear enough on the matter, but Frerin is already aware that the White Council has been gathered. There is at least one among them who _will_ want Thorin stopped, if only because the dwarves returning to the mountain highlights his own past failures, whatever they may be. Gandalf has never been forthcoming with that particular piece of information.

“We aren’t done with this,” Thorin growls.

 _He_ might not be, but Frerin is. He has made his position very clear, he stands with Belladonna and Bluebell. Thorin won’t like it, but what’s done is done. At some point Thorin will have to come to terms with that.


	6. Kili Flirts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kili has a moment with Tauriel and Fili tells him off for it

“Aren’t you going to search me?” He asks the red-head as she divests Fili of yet another knife (one day Kili _will_ discover just how many Fili keeps on his person, though he’s beginning to doubt his brother even knows). “I could have anything down my trousers.”

“Or nothing,” her expression doesn’t change as she shoves him into the same cell as his brother, who is loudly protesting his separation from Bluebell even though they have a fairly good view of her.

The door slams behind him and he turns to watch the elf depart. He should know better than to turn his back on Fili when he has been doing something his brother would disapprove of. The hand that smacks him across the back of his head is harder than usual. Fili is a little bit more than just disapproving, it would seem.

“ _Fee_ ,” he whines.

“No,” his brother says firmly in the same tone Amad often uses when he tries the same thing with her.

“I was just being friendly,” Kili objects.

“You don’t play nice with your captors, nadadith,” Fili lectures as though talking to a simpleton, his voice deliberately pitched so that the others (Thorin) won’t hear. “Especially not when they’re elves.”

“The ones in Rivendell were alright,” he objects.

Fili gives him a look that tells Kili _exactly_ what he thought of the elves in Rivendell. Especially Elladan and Elrohir, who seem to be capable of getting under anyone’s skin better than Kili could ever _dream_ of achieving. They were easy enough to get along with, why should these ones be any different? And she’s pretty enough, he supposes, a little bit tall, certainly cold, but she doesn’t know him yet and he enjoys a challenge. There’s nothing serious in some harmless flirting and it annoyed the arrogant blond in any case. A bonus in Kili’s eyes if there is any at all in their situation.

Fili huffs at him and settles next to the barred door, looking up at the spiral of cells until his eyes fall on Bluebell. There must be some elf magic in the ground here as there was in Rivendell, Kili thinks, because Fili’s eyes have taken on the same mithril shine they did in the last elven home they spent time in. It’s muted here, little more than a subtle glow, and Fili seems not to have noticed. With everything that’s happening that isn’t really a surprise. The flecks of indigo in them _are_ a surprise, however, and when Kili looks over at Bluebell he can just make out a silver ring around her irises. It seems that whatever they did together on the Carrock and under the Misty Mountains has had a long-term affect, though he doubts they’ve noticed.

The red-head walks back past them a few hours later and Fili kicks him before Kili can try open his mouth and catch her attention. He decides against retaliating, he’s not quite bored enough yet and their shared cell isn’t big enough for a decent wrestle. They’ll just end up frustrated and unable to take it out on each other properly. It isn’t worth the arguments that will follow, there will be enough of those when it comes time for them to decide who gets the bed. Kili suspects Thranduil doesn’t have captives all that often judging by the small cell block, the state of the cells and the fact that they have filled this section even with there being two, or more, to a cell in some cases.

The next time the she-elf passes is several days later, and Fili is snoring behind him. Kii is fiddling with one of the only personal belongings he was able to keep hold of, the stone charm Amad worked for him. He should give it to Fili and see if his brother could make a weapon of some sort out of it, but Fili has spent the last couple of days trying to influence the stone of the cells and he’s exhausted (and when he isn’t doing that he’s focused on Bluebell who isn’t handling their captivity and her isolation well). He has managed to make a couple of cracks, but they haven’t established how regular the elf patrols are. Even if they _do_ manage to get out of the cells, they have no idea how, or even _if_ , they would get out of Thranduil’s palace and Mirkwood as a whole. Without weapons they would be recaptured too easily. The others don’t make mention of it at all, they don’t want the elves to know about the Stone Sense and most of them don’t know how powerful Fili really is anyway. A lot of what he can do is the stuff of myth and legend and it’s exhausting for him.

“What have you there?” The elf asks and for a moment Kili wants to make a joke of it, maybe try and frighten her, but the arrogant blond one isn’t nearby to annoy, and he can see Nori watching from the cell above Bluebell’s.

“A gift from my mother,” he says, “a reminder of my promise to return to her with my brother.”

Fili doesn’t know about that part. He doesn’t know that Amad made Kili promise to bring him back. Kili is reckless, true, but Fili’s dedication to both Thorin and his brother is more likely to get _him_ killed. He glances back as Fili makes an odd noise, but the sound of snores quickly resumes.

“Given what awaits you at your destination, it seems a futile promise,” she replies, still cold but curious as well.

“The Iron Hills?” Kili asks as innocently as he can but the lie sits strangely on his tongue. “We’re all she has left,” he sighs, “how could I _not_ make such a vow?” She looks startled. “But you think all dwarves are greedy, vicious brutes,” he adds.

“Are you not?” She asks and Kili grins at her.

“Depends on who you ask,” he replies but turns his attention from her at the sound of the cell next to his being opened. “What are you doing with my uncle?” He demands and hears Fili shift behind him, apparently done with pretending to be asleep.

“He is being taken to see the King.”

Her words make something in Kili’s gut tighten. He hasn’t _heard_ Frerin ask to see Thranduil, but that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t. They have all the proof they need that Frerin will prioritise Belladonna above all others. He did vanish for forty years without a word, after all, just to help her. Why else, though, would Thranduil send for him, unless Frerin has demanded an audience due to his wife’s condition.

“Perhaps your uncle will be more reasonable than your King,” the elf adds.

Kili isn’t sure what he wants to outcome to be. On the one hand, if Frerin proves reasonable they will be released and allowed to continue. Which will mean that Frerin has betrayed Thorin and that will not end well, no matter what his reasons or intentions are. If Frerin doesn’t prove reasonable, or stands by Thorin, they’ll end up stuck in these cells. He turns away from the elf, suddenly charming his way out doesn’t seem so appealing anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I did write a scene with Kili and Tauriel. You can make of it what you will. I didn't like the addition of the love triangle. In my opinion it didn't add anything to the story, it didn't make the fact that Kili died any more tragic or less of a waste. If anything it took away from it, because it used time that could have been spent showing the others' grief at his and Fili and Thorin's deaths on showing her reaction. Be that as it may, there are people who like her and I did mention her in passing during Legolas' chapter. And at the end of the day, Kili strikes me as a bit of a flirt, doesn't matter who it is, he's going to flirt because it's in his nature. Still, it didn't add to the flow of the story and opened the door to a part of the movies I didn't like (except the line about his trousers, which I would have cheerfully checked myself) and didn't want to explore in detail. So it went.


	7. Tauriel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tauriel wants to follow Legolas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this while struggling with the Smaug chapter. I didn't have anything else I really wanted her involved in so it didn't stay.

“I cannot understand it!” Tauriel exclaims. “I cannot believe your son would betray you in this manner!”

Thranduil regards her with cold eyes, his expression betraying nothing. There should be _some_ surprise, she thinks, something more than the ageless detachment he always displays. There’s nothing, not even a _hint_ of emotion. Tauriel has seen her king in a rage, more times than she thinks any of the others would believe except Legolas. Her friend has always been wiling to listen to her when Thranduil’s ire has been directed towards her.

She fears, in her fascination with the dwarves, she has neglected her friend of late. In her defence, she has never encountered a dwarf before. She’s met Men, but those who live on the lake are coarse and greedy. They are much as she had always thought dwarves would be. To find them so protective of one another, to discover that at least one of them was playful and charming had been both confusing and enchanting. This was the only chance she would have to come to know this race a little better, and she had seized it with both hands. Apparently, she had missed her closest friend’s decision to commit treason as a consequence.

“You had no inkling?” Thranduil sounds almost amused. “You, who my son is so _fond_ of had no idea about the direction of his thoughts?”

“No, My Lord,” she shakes her head.

“You think you had no influence at all? You, who would befriend a prisoner?”

Ice grips her chest. Of _course,_ Thranduil would know that she had been talking to the young dwarf, Kili. There are those in the guard who are unhappy with her position, believing her close friendship with the prince has advanced her beyond her place.

“I would never have asked this of him,” she disagrees. “If I take a patrol, _now_ , we may yet catch them.”

“No,” Thranduil’s expression is sharp. “If my son wishes to ally himself with _dwarves_ he will soon learn their treachery for himself. Nobody leaves,” he orders, “seal the gates.”

“My King,” she begins, there is more happening here. There _has_ to be. None of it makes sense.

“You have your orders,” he cuts her off.

She has no choice. Legolas is a dear friend, Thranduil’s words imply that he thinks more highly of her, but she owes her king _everything_.

She follows orders.


	8. Legolas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Legolas makes the decision not to betray the dwarves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't have another chapter for him, but I also needed to get his reasons straight in my mind

Erebor is dark and cold, hollow and empty in a way that it shouldn’t be. There is something here, something that feels beyond enraged and it pulls at his mind in a way that reminds him of the sickness on his home. It is far more savage, however, there is nothing soft and tempting about it, just a desperate clawing that puts him in mind of an injured and terrified animal.

“I’m here,” it seems to whisper. “Do as your father has asked. Come and take me. She won’t resist you, she can’t. Bend and twist and break and take.”

He pushes it away, afraid of it and the way it makes him want to hurt his companions. The dwarves don’t trust him, given his orders it would be foolish of them if they did, but they haven’t left him isolated. Ori, obviously one of the scholars of the group, peppers him with questions when he can, even now that they’re in the mountain and the gold lures him in, he still sits with the elf prince for whatever time he can. Fili and Kili watch him warily, but often welcome him on watch with them, and he has found a kinship of sorts with Kili who is the only one of the group who uses a bow. Legolas had been surprised to find that he’s very talented. The hobbits, too, are happy to spend time with him. They have been all but banished from the treasury as well, Thorin apparently doesn’t trust them in the hunt for the Arkenstone either (not a bad position given that he _knows_ Bluebell has it and hasn’t said anything for one reason or another). Bluebell keeps herself mostly isolated, with her mother and father or with her betrothed. _That_ had been a surprise, to see how utterly the entire Company, even Thorin, supported the fact that Fili and Bluebell were going to marry. As Legolas understands it, he is to be King Under the Mountain after Thorin. He had expected there to be some tension or objections but, until they set foot in Erebor, Thorin had been happy at the thought that the two would wed.

Thorin is changed. He doesn’t think the others have noticed, but most of them are different as well. Thorin mutters to himself when the others aren’t around. Dark words of control and pain that Legolas doesn’t quite understand but that don’t bode well for the future of the others either. Words of gold and greed, words that imply most of them will be fortunate to get out of this mountain alive.

“Why,” he hears Thorin ask, “give them the gold when they can be disposed of and declared lost in the battle against Smaug?”

It worries him, makes him wary of trying to get into the treasury to find the gems that his father is so eager to get his hands on. Thorin has _said_ he won’t hesitate to take Legolas’ life if given the opportunity and the elf has even less reason to think of it as an idle threat than he did before. At least if his father casts him out for not completing his task he’ll be alive. Legolas can travel, as he has long desired to, and perhaps his father might one day relent. Stranger things have happened.

Ultimately, however, it is Belladonna who convinces him not to follow his father’s orders. He isn’t sure if she knows that he plans on taking the jewels and the Arkenstone when given the chance, if she just suspects it, or has no idea at all. He doesn’t understand what makes her seek him out, only that she does. Little by little she draws him out, gets him talking about his father and his limited memories of his mother. She listens with patient understanding and gentle touches, treats him in much the same way that she does her own daughter. He could betray most of the others without a second thought, although he would feel some guilt when it came to Kili and Ori, but one look at Belladonna and he knows that it would tear his heart apart to betray _her_. She’s accepted him, she shows him that he doesn’t have to be cold and unfeeling in the way that his father insists is best. She shows him that love is real and that it is worth all the possible future heart break that might come with it. And so, he can’t betray the dwarves, because he refuses to hurt _her_.


	9. Dwalin and Nori

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dwalin and Nori come to an understanding

“What have you got there, thief?” Dwalin growls.

Nori is crouched against a wall and he looks up from whatever piece of shine he is holding to glare at Dwalin. Those glares lack the bite they used to have, although there’s a bitterness that Dwalin doesn’t want to put a name to. He’s never wanted to put a name to it, even though he’s seen it in the mirror every day since he first arrested Nori and heard the stone sing. Nori must have heard it too, if his furious reaction was anything to go by, but he has never tried to acknowledge it, or get Dwalin to do it either. Dwalin isn’t sure which is worse, that they are _both_ trying to avoid the fact that they are each other’s One, or that Dwalin almost _wants_ Nori to try and convince him it would work.

A guard and a thief.

Those under him would have laughed themselves sick, before the quest anyway. Now Nori has a clean slate, a fresh start. Joining the quest was his chance to start a new life.

“Doesn’t matter _what_ I have, guard,” Nori hisses. “It’s part of _my_ share. One sixteenth, an equal split for all. There’s more than enough to go around.” Then the thief grins. “You think I’m stupid enough to pinch the Arkenstone? That’s one bit of shine I have no use for. Couldn’t fence the thing, even in pieces.” Dwalin glares at him and Nori shrugs. “Alright,” he allows, “there are some people out there who would buy a piece or two. But they’d stab me in the back as soon as the deal was done. I’m not stupid, Dwalin, and my interest has always been in staying _alive_. One sixteenth of that would have me living like a King, it’s why I negotiated a pardon into my contract. Only an idiot steals the Arkenstone when they have a share of all of that waiting for them. It’s more gold than I could spend in three lifetimes.”

“You thought about it, though,” Dwalin accuses.

“Of course I have,” Nori laughs. “Every thief in the world has _thought_ about it. There might even be one or two out there who’ll give it a go. That’ll be _your_ problem,” he tosses the gem he’s been playing with in the air and Dwalin catches it. “I’ll be relaxing on my _enormous_ pile of gold with a whore or two, maybe even three, getting old and fat.”

Dwalin flinches. Dwarves have whores, like all the rest of the races except elves (Dwalin doesn’t think their blood runs hot enough for it). When all is said and done there will always be those who struggle for money and fall back on one of two options, thieving and whoring. It’s a miserable existence in Dwalin’s opinion, usually that of those whose One has died and left them struggling to make ends meet, or others whose One belongs to someone else and they turn to selling themselves to run from the pain of rejection. It doesn’t always end well, as it didn’t for Nori’s mother in the end.

“Too good for it?” Nori sneers. They’d moved past this, Dwalin thought, past the sniping and biting and tearing at one another. Everyone has been shorter, _sharper_ , since they received the news that Smaug was finally dead and gone. Even the constant objections to searching for the Arkenstone have died down. The only reason Dwalin is out here at all instead of doing his part is Thorin had noticed Nori’s absence.

“You know better than that,” he replies, looking at the piece of jade Nori had been playing with. A carved dwarf carrying a pair of axes.

“Aye, I do,” Nori agrees, and the bitterness is there again. “But if you can’t buy it, and there’s no way for you to take it and live, a good thief walks away from what he knows he can’t have.”

“Who said you can’t have it?” Dwalin asks, against _all_ his own instincts of self-preservation. Nori laughs again and this time it's mocking.

“ _You_ do,” he all but whispers, “every time you look at me,” he gets to his feet. “I’ll get back to looking.”

Good sense is on the spoil heap, Dwalin thinks as he grabs Nori’s arm. Everyone is searching through the gold. Everyone _wants_ , but what Dwalin wants isn’t in that hoard. It’s in front of him, glaring daggers at the hand that holds him and with his face twisted into an expression that Dwalin can’t quite identify. He doesn’t bother trying, just uses his grip to spin the slighter dwarf and shove Nori against the wall. He claims the thief’s mouth, plundering until all he can taste is Nori and the other dwarf is squirming against him, arms that are surprisingly strong pulling him closer and he can hardly breathe. His lungs are burning but he doesn’t want to stop, almost terrified that if he pulls away he will lose this.

“Mine,” he snarls into the kiss and hears Nori gasp an agreement.

This is what he’ll hoard, Dwalin thinks as he feels slender fingers reach for buckles. Nori’s kisses, Nori’s touch, the sharp nip of Nori’s teeth on exposed flesh and the weight of Nori in his arms. And later, much later, maybe he’ll spread Nori out on their combined wealth and worship him. He’ll look beautiful among the gold and gems.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I went there. I love these two. Will they necessarily be good for each other? Probably not, but it's my favourite pairing.


	10. Fili and Bluebell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fili and Bluebell in the minutes before Thorin confronts them about the Arkenstone

“We need to work out what we’re going to do,” Fili says softly as he holds Bluebell’s hand in his. The Arkenstone is becoming louder, now, hissing and whispering in the back of his mind no matter how hard he works to keep it out and he knows that Bluebell hears it too.

“We can’t just give it to him,” Bluebell objects. “You can see how it’s affecting him and the others. They don’t have the resistance you do, or Bofur, Bifur and Bombur.” And Bifur and Bofur are starting to fall to the madness as well, though she doesn’t say it. “What if we hid it somewhere in the mountain?” She asks him. Fili shakes his head.

“It’s affecting the mountain as well. Even if we drop it down the deepest mineshaft we can find it will still be discovered one day. And I doubt that will stop whatever it’s doing. There was madness in the royal line _before_ Thror,” he tells her.

Although all the stories say that Thror was easily the worst and earliest affected of all the line of Durin. Until Thorin anyway. Frerin’s warning a few days ago had been right, they may have managed to get the mountain back (and how long they will manage to keep it when the Men and Elves are at their gate is another matter) but they’ve lost Thorin. Fili’s uncle is gone, there is a stranger in his place, and he’s beginning to fear for Bluebell’s safety. Even if she hadn’t hidden the Arkenstone Thorin is watching her with a suspicion and malice that Fili doesn’t like the look of. There is only one course of action they can take.

“You need to get out of the mountain,” he says after a moment. She turns wide eyes up to look at him.

“Both of us,” she replies. “We both need to get out of the mountain, Kili too.”

“No, just you,” he tells her. “If I leave, or Kili or Frerin and your mother, Thorin will notice and he won’t rest until he finds you.” She shakes her head. “If you leave _now_ , I’ll be able to join you later. Make for Rivendell and I’ll find you there.”

“I won’t leave without you,” she insists. “I’ll never see you again if I go without you, you know it as well as I do.”

She’s right, of course, as soon as Thorin discovers that Bluebell is gone and has taken the Arkenstone with her it’s unlikely Fili will ever see the light of day again. It’s unlikely he’ll survive his uncle’s wrath.

“But you’ll be safe there,” he says, “and no matter what happens to me, you’ll be able to live a full life. It won’t be what we imagined, but you’ll go on.”

“I won’t,” she whispers. “Hobbits don’t survive the death of their bonded. If you were to- If Thorin killed you for helping me to take it out of the mountain, I would know. I wouldn’t survive a week.”

Horror sweeps through him. No one had mentioned this, not even Frerin who _must_ know it given his relationship with Belladonna. It goes some way towards explaining why Belladonna and Frerin were so concerned about the direction his relationship with Bluebell had taken, the little Fili knows about Bluebell’s father indicates that her parents’ marriage was not a happy one. It’s only natural that they would object to the possibility of the same future for her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He asks. “If I’d known- _How_ did it happen?”

“If we’d done things the normal way,” she whispers, “I would have told you when you asked me to marry you, but we jumped ahead of ourselves under the Misty Mountains and I didn’t want you to feel obligated to me in any way. I would have told you on our wedding night.” He can understand why she would have decided to wait until then. “I didn’t want you to have to worry about it if we ran into trouble on the way here.” She adds and that makes sense too, worrying about not getting killed can sometimes be as deadly as not paying attention when in battle, it is possible to be _too_ cautious when fighting.

“We both need to leave,” he says after a breath. “And we’ll need Kili as well.” His brother would never forgive them if they were to leave him behind, and Fili doesn’t want to in any case. Frerin and Belladonna will be alright, they will find their own way out as soon as they realise that Fili, Kili and Bluebell are gone. They have a watch, soon, Bombur’s will be up in less than an hour. If they’re quick they should be able to gather some supplies and sneak out while everyone else is distracted.

“I’ve been looking for you two,” a voice says, and Fili turns to see Thorin glaring at them.

“What can we do for your, Uncle?” He struggles to keep his voice even, worried about how much Thorin might have overheard.

“Give it to me,” Thorin orders. “Give me the Arkenstone.”

“What makes you think we have it?” He replies, placing himself between Bluebell and Thorin, not liking the dark way his uncle looks at his betrothed.

“I know you have it,” Thorin replies.

It’s going to come down to a fight, Fili realises. It’s very likely that he is going to have to strike his uncle, perhaps even draw his sword, and this won’t be like any of the hours they have spent practicing. If it comes down to a fight now it will be for his life, and Bluebell’s, and he isn’t sure he can win.

Then Frerin arrives and, for one brilliant moment, he thinks that everything will be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my original draft (read: the notes I wrote right when I set out to write this and I knew exactly where I was going but not how I got there) the entire scene between Thorin, Fili and Bluebell before they are taken by the stone was going to be from Fili's pov. When I got there in the first full write through, however, I found that it wouldn't work from Fili's pov. Partly because we hadn't long heard from him and partly because it meant I would need an extra bridging chapter from some else to show how their disappearance looked to everyone else. I wrote two versions and while the confrontation remained mostly as seen in Frerin's chapter, the run up to it was obviously different. Frerin's chapter felt more right and this one was put to one side.


	11. Frerin and Belladonna

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frerin and Belladonna talk before he goes to fight in the Battle of the Five Armies

Frerin watches Thorin lead Kili back into the mountain. He’s relieved to see his brother back to himself, although his timing could have been better, and just as pleased that Thorin has decided to order Kili to remain off the battlefield. Kili is ready, more than, but skirmishes on the way to Erebor are not the same as the utter chaos of war. The likelihood that any member of the Company who goes out into that will come back is almost non-existent.

“Don’t go,” Belladonna whispers, “please, Frerin, don’t go.”

“I have to,” he tells her, though he regrets that he must. “If I don’t Kili will. He’s too young.”

“Not as young as you were,” she replies. “If you go out there, you’re going to your death.”

“I won’t send Kili in my place,” he insists. She _knows_ this, he’s told her it more than once. This is a choice he has been forced to make so many times in the past. Thorin, Dis, Fili and Kili or Belladonna. More than once he has chosen her over all of them. This time he can’t. “If I stay here, he’ll follow Thorin out of those gates, he’ll have no reason to remain, no one to protect. He _will_ die if he goes out there, Bella, you know it.”

“You’ll render our child an orphan before he’s even born!” She cries. “You know what will happen to me if you die! Stay! Please! You and Kili both!”

“I can’t, Bella. I wish I could,” he takes her face in his hands so that she has to look at him and see just how much he wants to stay with her. “In a time of war my place is at Thorin’s side. Not because I’m a prince, or because he’s my king. He’s my _brother_ , I’m a dwarf. I belong beside him in this.” She makes a broken noise. “I’ve seen that look on Kili’s face before, Atamanel, I’ve seen it in others, and I’ve seen it in the mirror. He won’t go out there to fight. He’ll go out there to _die_. Fili and Thorin are his world, but he’s all Dis has left. Take him home for me.”

“I can’t,” she whispers, tears clear in her eyes. “I can’t. I can’t feel the earth anymore, not even a hint of it. Ever since Bluebell and Fili disappeared it’s been gone.”

Frerin bows his head. That was his only hope for his wife, child and sister-son. Still, he doesn’t want to risk them in battle. Not even if all seems lost. Better even the vain hope of them being safe in the mountain than sending them into a hopeless fight.

“Try,” he breathes, “if the time comes, try.” He bows his head. “I never should have brought you. I should have tied you and Bluebell in sacks and dragged you back to the Shire as soon as we realised Thorin was being hunted.”

“She wouldn’t have gone,” Belladonna sniffles.

“She might have, if I’d have had the sense to drag Fili and Kili back as well,” he sighs and presses his head to hers. “I love you, Bella,” he says. “I always did, I always will. I’ll come back to you.”

She kisses him, then, and it is nothing like any of the other kisses they have shared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thorin would have given Frerin some time with his wife to say goodbye, and this was about all that a further chapter would add to the narrative.


	12. Dis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dis thinks on the quest before her sons leave

Dis can’t believe that this day has finally come, Thorin has been planning it for years and it's finally time for her two sons to leave home. It’s foolishness, she thinks, to try and take back Erebor and she’s afraid. She’s terrified that Thorin’s quest will cost her boys their lives. She doesn’t dare say it, and tries not to think it, but they are her sons and no matter her brother’s assurances nothing about this will be easy.

Thorin left several days ago, on his way to a meeting with the other lords of the seven dwarf kingdoms to ask for aid. She already knows what the answer will be. So few of their own people have stepped forwards to take part in this insanity. The other lords won’t risk their own armies, and even if they _did_ agree to help the reparations they would demand would be crippling. So much so they would be better going alone.

She should be going too, she thinks miserably as she looks at the sleeping forms of her treasured sons. Kili is snoring lightly, wrapped around his pillows, and Fili is curled tight under his blankets, clinging to them as though he fears someone will try to take the from him. Given the number of his early years that he spent in the same bed as his brother such an event hasn’t always been outside the realms of possibility. Seeing them like this reminds her of how young they are. They’re grown and of age, true, and they’re older than Thorin and Frerin _both_ were at Azanulbizar, but they are her _children_ and she doesn’t want them to risk their lives for a mountain they have never seen.

Had Frerin been here he could have stopped it, he could have convinced Thorin not to take her sons into the waiting jaws of a dragon. They would have stayed if Frerin had told them to, she thinks angrily. Frerin was always the one inclined towards keeping them away from battle and ensuring they had _lives_. Then again, maybe he wouldn’t. Fili isn’t happy here. His Stone Sense is so strong, and he clearly needs the deep stone and quiet dark that can’t be found here far more than she does. Frerin was always more in tune with the needs of her boys, sometimes more than even _she_ was.

“Amad?” Kili’s sleepy voice reaches her and she crosses to sit on the edge of his bed. “Is it time?”

“Not yet, kurkarukê,” she says softly, “I couldn’t sleep is all. Rest.”

“You don’t need to worry,” Kili yawns, “we’ll come back, we always do.”

Escorting caravans between towns and outlying settlements isn’t the same as heading towards a dragon, but she doesn’t _say_ that. She just smiles, runs her fingers through his unruly dark hair, and pulls the runestone from her pocket.

“Promise you’ll come back," she says, pressing the charm into his hand. “Promise you’ll bring Fili back to. You know how hard he tries to get your uncle’s approval, even though he’s always had it.”

“I promise, Amad,” Kili insists. “We’ll come back, and I’ll look after him. He’d be lost without me anyway.”

Only too true, and another reason Dis is so afraid to part with her sons. They rely on each other heavily, perhaps _too_ heavily. Kili has often been the only way to pull Fili out of the stone when his need for the deep dark gets to be too much, and Fili is often the only reason that Kili’s brash recklessness and impulsive nature doesn’t get him killed. The thought of one of them falling is almost more terrible than the thought of losing them both because the son she will get back will be little more than a shell. She saw what Frerin’s disappearance did to Thorin, and they were never as close as her boys are.

“Bring them back safely,” she prays to Mahal and the stone beneath her feet pulses briefly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had two flashback options for Dis, this one and her reaction to knowing that Frerin had survived Azanulbizar and chosen not to come home. I went with the second as that tied back nicely to the first chapter.


End file.
